Sawt Falasteen - Tense standoff as N.Ireland town braces for third night of riots

Despite calls for calm from across the divided UK province, as dusk fell hundreds of protestors milled in the centre of northern Ballymena in a tense standoff with police armed with riot shields and backed by water cannons.

Two nights of intense violence, which has left 32 police officers injured and a trail of burned-out houses and businesses, has been loudly condemned by police as "racist thuggery".

Police Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said he had appealed to police forces in England and Wales to deploy to aid his forces to quell the unrest.

Riot police with dogs pushed back protestors who sporadically threw fireworks, masonry and bottles, and two petrol bombs were thrown at a line of armoured police landrovers, an AFP correspondent saw.

A leisure centre in the town of Larne, some 20 miles (32 kilometres) southeast of Ballymena, was set on fire by masked men, local media reported. Some of those who had to be evacuated from Ballymena had been given temporary shelter in the centre.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier Wednesday condemned the violence as "mindless violence".

The riots erupted after the arrest of two teenagers accused of attempting to rape a young girl. The pair appeared in court on Monday where they asked for a Romanian interpreter.

"We strongly condemn the racially motivated violence witnessed in recent days and make an urgent appeal for calm across society," ministers from every party in the province's power-sharing executive said Wednesday in a joint statement.

Residents had been "terrorised" and police injured, they added, urging people to reject the "divisive agenda being pushed by a "destructive" minority.

"There can never be any justification for the violence that has taken place in recent days," said the leaders

Six people were arrested Tuesday during the second night of riots in Ballymena, around 48 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of Belfast, and surrounding places.

Police will not confirm the ethnicity of the two teenagers who remain in custody, but areas attacked on Monday and Tuesday included those where Romanian migrants live.

Traditional foes such as the republican Sinn Fein and pro-UK Democratic Unionist Party lent their voices to the joint statement calling for calm.

- 'Racist thuggery' -

Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill, the Sinn Fein vice president, called the riots "abhorrent".

"Police officers came under sustained attack over a number of hours with multiple petrol bombs, heavy masonry, bricks and fireworks in their direction," the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said in a statement.

Some of the injured officers required hospital treatment.

Police chief Henderson told a press conference earlier Wednesday that his forces were "preparing and planned" for more unrest.

Tensions in Ballymena, which has a large migrant population, remained high throughout the day Wednesday.

Residents told AFP of "terrifying" scenes in which attackers targeted "foreigners" over the previous days.

Some had fixed signs to their houses indicating they were Filipino residents, or hung up British flags.

Henderson on Tuesday denounced the violence as "racist thuggery" and said it was "clearly racially motivated and targeted at our minority ethnic community and police".

The unrest comes as immigration is increasingly a hot-button issue across the United Kingdom and in the neighbouring Republic of Ireland.

Former Northern Ireland minister Lord Caine hit out at the protestors, saying: "There is nothing remotely British about wrapping oneself in the Union flag, attacking migrants, forcing people from their homes and scapegoating entire communities anywhere in the United Kingdom."

But one resident Allison McCurdy, 52, who came to see the Ballymena standoff, told AFP: "We're sending a message that Ballymena has had enough of foreigners, the town's been destroyed."

"I hope they keep it up."

"There are so many foreigners, Ballymena is overrun by them. Me, myself I don't feel safe walking the streets," said another Ballymena resident, Nicola Guy, 42, who is disabled and can't work.

J.AbuHassan--SF-PST